Yarrow: Herb of the Week

 

Yarrow's (Achillea millefolium) claim to fame is that the leaves were historically used to staunch bleeding from cuts. It was the pre-science's Stop-Clot.

Standard caveats: This is not in alignment with modern science's understanding of how deep cuts should be treated. This information is shared for recreational and historical reasons.

It is my totally biased belief that Yarrow became known for this use because the only two plants with such finely incised leaves that can be reliably found on flat, gravelly high-ground are Yarrow and Queen Anne's Lace.

If you were going to fight a battle, perhaps one involving horses, you would choose firm flat ground. If your buddy were wounded with a cut that was bleeding aggressively but not spurting, you would look for something, anything to cram in the cut to stop the bleeding.

Leaves like Yarrow and QAL provide a lattice that blood can clot around. That lattice is a bit like the rebar in concrete.

Yarrow leaves have a distinctive smell that is useful in identification. Sadly, I cannot convey that over the internet.

Of the two herbs, Yarrow has a longer season where sizable leaves can be found. That is because Yarrow is a perennial while QAL is a biennial. That is, Queen Anne's Lace has a period in the late summer when there are not sizable plants with leaves.

Were one to find themselves in a situation where your buddy would bleed to death if you could not move him to safety, and if you did not have reasonably sterile cloth to cover-and-bind over the wound to slow bleeding, Yarrow might still have a place in the modern herbalist's toolkit. 

Again, my take is that Yarrow's value was that it was the most available plant with appropriate leaf form on the battlefield or where the grain was being scythed and not that it was the BEST wound treatment evah growing in a garden three miles away from where the wound was inflicted. It was the best field-expedient available.

A puff-piece on Yarrow's medicinal benefits.